Read the excerpt from "The Yellow Wallpaper." I wonder how it was done and who did it, and what they did it for. Round and round and round—round and round and round—it makes me dizzy! I really have discovered something at last. Through watching so much at night, when it changes so, I have finally found out. The front pattern DOES move—and no wonder! The woman behind shakes it! Sometimes I think there are a great many women behind, and sometimes only one, and she crawls around fast, and her crawling shakes it all over. Then in the very bright spots she keeps still, and in the very shady spots she just takes hold of the bars and shakes them hard. And she is all the time trying to climb through. Which statement describes a gothic element in this excerpt that reflects a social attitude of Gilman’s time?
Which of the narrator’s statements in "The Yellow Wallpaper" suggests that she does not think women are too frail to be intellectual?
Why did Gilman most likely choose an unreliable narrator to tell the story of "The Yellow Wallpaper"?
Read the excerpt from "The Yellow Wallpaper." I don’t like our room a bit. I wanted one downstairs that opened on the piazza and had roses all over the window, and such pretty old-fashioned chintz hangings! but John would not hear of it. He said there was only one window and not room for two beds, and no near room for him if he took another. He is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction. Which statement describes a gothic element in this excerpt that reflects a social attitude of Gilman’s time?
Read the excerpt from "The Yellow Wallpaper." At night in any kind of light, in twilight, candle light, lamplight, and worst of all by moonlight, it becomes bars! The outside pattern I mean, and the woman behind it is as plain as can be. What does the narrator’s description of the wallpaper reveal about the context of the story?
Read the excerpt from "The Yellow Wallpaper." John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no REASON to suffer, and that satisfies him. Of course it is only nervousness. It does weigh on me so not to do my duty in any way! I meant to be such a help to John, such a real rest and comfort, and here I am a comparative burden already! Nobody would believe what an effort it is to do what little I am able,—to dress and entertain, and order things. How does the narrator’s viewpoint reveal a social attitude of Gilman’s time?
Read the excerpt from "The Yellow Wallpaper." If a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical tendency—what is one to do? My brother is also a physician, and also of high standing, and he says the same thing. So I take phosphates or phosphites—whichever it is, and tonics, and journeys, and air, and exercise, and am absolutely forbidden to “work” until I am well again. What does the narrator’s description reveal about the social context of the story?
Read the excerpt from "The Yellow Wallpaper." At first he meant to repaper the room, but afterwards he said that I was letting it get the better of me, and that nothing was worse for a nervous patient than to give way to such fancies. Which gothic element in this excerpt reflects a social attitude of Gilman’s time?
In "The Yellow Wallpaper," which description of John indicates that the narrator does not trust him?
Read the excerpt from "The Yellow Wallpaper." He seems very queer sometimes, and even Jennie has an inexplicable look. It strikes me occasionally, just as a scientific hypothesis,—that perhaps it is the paper! I have watched John when he did not know I was looking, and come into the room suddenly on the most innocent excuses, and I’ve caught him several times LOOKING AT THE PAPER! And Jennie too. I caught Jennie with her hand on it once. Why does the narrator believe that John and Jennie are looking at the wallpaper?
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